I've played over 4000 fifty50s.

a few notes:

Already the games are what i'd call unplayable most times of the day with 8+ regs per table.

I have been on 2.2k+ downswing when i was playing $20-$50 games.

I'm awesome.

Juk

"most times of the day" may be an exaggeration, I used to play 2 times of the day, now 1 of those times (1AM+ GMT) is basically too reg filled to play. I always look at the lobby of the most filled $100 and it's usually 6-8 regs regged with no fish yet.

In general would you guys say surviving or building a big stack is more important in these. I ask because i make the top 5 around 80 percent of the the time that i play but i'm hardly making any progress as far as profit is concerned.

I'm guessing you haven't played many games?

you would be correct but my question still stands

building a big stack seems more EV after the 1,5k or so ive played of them. Since with a big stack you usually can start abusing. Often I started with a 3,5K stack with 7 left. With constant abuse its not rare you can steal it up to 6K before the game ends, thus getting you one extra buy in....

well my ITM is <60% at the $5s over 700 games and I'm doing ok 80% is very high and still not making money must entail an average chipstack of

well 1k games at $5.24 = $5240
800 games $5 back = $4k
$1240 = a buck fifty five per ITM game at 6 chips per cent = 930 chips average finish at 80% itm to break even after rake before FPP etc

which is not very many

i have another general question shouldn't we be playing push fold in these? I read at another site that unless you have over 20xbb you can't really afford to raise fold because it takes to big of a chunk out of your stack.

Where did you read that? That's stupid. Opponent dependent imo.

it was actually on a v
id by a guy named krcdmc at a site called holdem crusher 101
On the vid there is a hand where one of the players bet calls with jj and he says the dude made a horrible error and that he should have just shoved if he was will to felt with the hand.

never heard of it. It might have been an error. It depends on stack sizes and how you expect your opponent to react.

20bbs seems pretty deep to go into push fold mode though.

I'm not qualified to judge the guy but his general theory is if you are willing to felt a hand you should be the one shoving. Or if it is a bluff you still need to shove because raising then folding eats away at your stack. It's in the brb series so i'll try to find the exact hand but i have like 7 hours of video to scan.

mehh, tried cashgames but tilting is to costly there

has to play smth to maintain nova... you saying its so bad at 20-30$ ? cose I wont play 25$ 9mans untill they reduce freakin rake
mehhh

that push/fold comment sounds way wrong to me. I'm still new at these so maybe i just play bad, but i definitely don't play strictly push/fold at 15-20bbs.

This is 7 hours of fifty50 strat or is it another format?

I wouldn't base to much off of any video. Think about his logic and take the parts that make sense. It's better to think about things yourself than to just accept what you're spoon fed.

mostly regular sngs with a few dons but the push or fold comment was for sngs in general.

how do you guys play middle pairs? When i'm 10xbb or less i push fold. When i have 20x+ i limp or raise depending on how i feel the other players will react. It's the 11-15xbb range that gives me trouble were to deep to shove imho but not deep enough to set hunt or bet fold. So limping seems wrong shoving seems wrong. Making a raise and getting 3-bet seems bad aswell

I used to just fold those hands in DoNs, not sure about fifties, starting to push them earlier might be a good idea.

no money in middle pairs. everyone's solid.

One thing i have noticed about the 1.08 and 1.11 tourneys is that their are 2 distinct kinda donks. The first being the guy who calls of 30xbb chips with kj off with only 6 or 7 people left . The other is what i like to call mr.squeaky . These folks will not get all in unless the have a big pair or AK. They just fold over and over even if the have 4 blinds left and everyone else has 10+ and it's no where close to the money the will not risk it unless they have the goods. I swear i was at a table 5 minutes ago and some dude folded his bb to a raise with less then a blind behind and 7 players still in it. I'm no mr. fifty50 but that seems down right wrong.

As a former Small-Stakes-DON-Player I had to adjust my strategy on these and I have not finished yet but here is what I currently do:

Phase 1 (until Blinds 50/100): Goal is to survive or "easy" double up!
Basically same ultratight style as in DONs: Only AA, KK, sometimes QQ, and a little setmining now and then.
But in difference to DONs I also play AK and AQ!! from time to time because at the moment there are so many newbies in the Fifty50 $5.24 playing their weak aces or whatever they think is good enough that they are easy to exploit postflop. But I only do that against total newbies or proven bad players!

Phase 2 (until Blinds 150/300 or until less than 7 players):
Compared to DONs this is a crazy but still crucial phase in Fifty50s and I still don't know exactly how to handle it. I try to steal the blinds from time to time and use ICM pushes to build a stack > 3000.
Generally speaking pushing a bit wider than in DONs and even calling a bit looser.
If I have less than 1000 chips at the end of this phase I am looking for and accept any coinflip situations preflop, i.e. I even call with QJo if i think i'm up against a small pair.

Phase 3 (on the Bubble or Blinds >= 150/300):
I use two different approaches depending on my stack size:
a) As a small or average stack (<3000) i use the "old" surviving strategy like in DONs. Try to keep myself out of everything unless I have to act.
b) As mid or big stack (>3000) I loose up and bully the mid and small stacks to maximize my winnings. I achieve that by either using correct ICM pushes and calls or aggressive postflop play, i.e. quite the opposite of "normal" DON strategy.

I am sure this strategy has a lot of flaws and is far from being perfect but so far it works at least on $5.24 Fifty50 (ROI 6% in 1500 games).
Sometimes its hard for me to stick to either 3a or 3b strategy when multitabling since they differ so much.

My sample size for $10.48-Level isnt big enough (less than 500) to say anything. But it seems that I need to adjust this strategy for this level because i cant beat the rake here

Sorry for my bad english...but I hope it contributed at least something to the topic of this thread.

Not like your getting 3 bet every time. If your not comfortable playing flops then just muck imo.

how tight is the right for the don bubble
example hand1:
Poker Stars $10.00+$0.48 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t150/t300 Blinds + t40 - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

Hero (BB): t1820 M = 2.64
UTG: t2815 M = 4.08
MP: t640 M = 0.93
CO: t2375 M = 3.44
BTN: t4050 M = 5.87
SB: t3300 M = 4.78

Pre Flop: (t690) Hero is BB with K Q
4 folds, SB raises to t3260 all in,hero?

example hand 2:

range to push here?



Poker Stars $10.00+$0.48 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t150/t300 Blinds + t40 - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

Hero (SB): t1480 M = 2.14
BB: t2775 M = 4.02
UTG: t600 M = 0.87
MP: t2335 M = 3.38
CO: t4010 M = 5.81
BTN: t3800 M = 5.51

Pre Flop: (t690) Hero is SB with ???? RANGE HERE?
4 folds, HERO???

a cool one when i have doubled the buyin:


Poker Stars $10.00+$0.48 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t250/t500 Blinds + t60 - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter By DeucesCracked Poker Videos

CO: t1450 M = 1.31
BTN: t1890 M = 1.70
Hero (SB): t2990 M = 2.69
BB: t3310 M = 2.98
UTG: t4395 M = 3.96
MP: t965 M = 0.87

Pre Flop: (t1110) Hero is SB with A J (ranges here?)
UTG raises to t4335 all in, 3 folds, Hero ????